COVID-19 and climate change are making it clear that disaster impacts increasingly cascade across geographies and sectors. Despite progress, risk creation is outstripping risk reduction. To change course, new approaches to governance systems and an understanding of systemic risk are needed.

Despite the current circular economy global movement, the amount of waste generated globally is still on the rise, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when online shopping and take-out food services have been increasing. We must reduce waste and, simultaneously, recycle/recover resources from “waste.” This requires transformation along the entire value chain of production and consumption from product design and distribution to end of use and life.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) invited project officers, consultants, and practitioners to attend the Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) Lecture and Clinic on 15 September and 21 September.